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May 3, 2011

Where to Buy Dress Forms and How To Alter Them

While you wait for the day to score yourself a vintage dress form at an estate sale you can make a new one look old and save a ton of money in the process

This started out as a new $20.95 white form. The back of the form is open and has a knob for adjusting the height. It has a heavy solid acrylic base.

I Mod Podged on vintage sheet music

(I have a love hate with Mod Podge...what a mess!)

I printed graphics from Graphics Fairy onto sheet music by putting sheet music in my printer instead of plain paper. Then tore the sheet music and strategically placed the graphics.

To age it I used walnut ink stand back and spray of fine mist over the the form and then pat with a dry cloth if there is any large blobs of ink

I hot glued vintage lace on the bottom and I have myself a vintage looking form

A form could be covered with wrapping paper, pattern paper, Or the artists out there could paint them..... Oohh I can see a form painted with some fabulous roses. I covered this one with fabric dipped in starch.

You are all so creative the skies the limit on how you will transform a dress form

OK, now where to purchase them.

If you live in Orlando or Baltimore you are lucky enough to have a Barr Display store in town, but if not you can order online.

They have an online catalog, but it is difficult to use. Even though I knew what I wanted I could not find it. You might want to book mark this.

This is two parts, the form and the base.

The form can be used alone and has a swivel hanger.

The form is $8.98

The base is $12.00

The form and base are #8020 and come in black and white. Put #8020 into search

The shipping is actual cost and should be around $8-$10 (Shipping stays the same through Fed Ex if you order multiple forms)

Oh my gosh Carol, I have been wanting one of these which seems like forever.....Thank you so much for sharing! I am heading over there now! I love your idea with the sheet music and graphics...I so enjoy coming to your blog, you have the most wonderful creations!!! Have a wonderful week and thank you for sharing! Mary

Hi Carol!Were you reading my mind?? I have been wanting to buy one of these forms forever and couldn't find one at a reasonable price. I love how you've embellished yours, especially the sheet music paper. Oh, you are so talented girl!

Carol....great minds think alike! Im still waiting to score my vintage one. But because Im doing a launch party for my jewelry line I need forms for my necklaces. I bought forms for $6...they dont have stands but hooks on the back and I covered it in dictionary pages. She is now loving known as my Book Worm Muse.

I love the different ways you altered them, I hope you will stop by and check out mine as well.

This is brilliant!! You are so sweet to pass on all of the info. about the store... I bet they look great in your booth Carol, I love the one with the music paper. Thank you for sharing all of the inside scoop! xoxoxo

Oh my gosh Carol, these are so beautiful! Especially the sheet music form. I am definitely going to have to follow the link and check this out. They would be fun my booth too, probably to sell or possibly use to display scarves. Thanks!

Your dressforms are gorgeous! I didn't see how it could get any better than the music sheeted one, but then you went and showed the starched roses one....sigh....DOUBLE Sigh....

I fabric-ed a full size dressform using spray adhesive for my mother a few Christmases ago and it was TONS of work, but she loves it. I have never tackled doing another one for myself but I do have a small collection of premade ones. You should look on my Past Blog Party tab under my blog header picture to go to the DressForm Party that I participated in to see mine!

Hi Carol,Great post!! Barr Display won't know what hit them :)The dress form turned out awesome, I love the old sheet music. Thanks for all of the tips and for the information about where to purchase.Have a great weekend.Jane

You did a beautiful job! So many possibilities! I was in the market for a dress form a while ago and couldn't find one. I ended up making one from a floor lamp and various metal baskets. You can check it out if you want.http://secondchancesbysusan.blogspot.com/2011/01/homemade-dress-form.html

Those are so cool Carol. I missed this the other day. Lucy and I have been busy visiting pets and newbies this week. I really love this idea...I wonder if the hubs would mind this in our bedroom LOL...I think my boys would freak!

Hello Carol~It's soo nice catching up with you. Looks like I've timed it perfectly to get a peek at your latest creations. what an amazing transformation...both beautiful with their own personalities. I would love one with the acrylic base, but didn't find that style at the website. I just purchased a small muslin jewelery form from ETSY...it was $60. This is definitely a more frugal option with a lovely outcome.

Hey Carol, Yep...planning a wedding party on top of everything else and will be making and using vintage for a lot of the party decor. Love this form with that base! Thanks for sharing where you get them. How tall are they. I covered an old shelf mannequin with very vintage pattern pieces and put it in my booth. Thought it would sell right away but it hasn't yet. Funny about what you think will sell but doesn't. Happy Mother's Day.

Love what you did to both dress forms - really look vintage-y! Wish I was in Orlando, I would visit your booth instead of going to Disney World ;) priorities, right?! Thanks for sharing with us at Between Naps -

You have just given me the inspiration that I need to climb into my attic this week and bring down my husband's grandmother's dress form. It is ancient but not in the best of shape and really needs a makeover. The iron stand it is on has claw feet on rollers. THANK you for showing me how gorgeous it can be, hopefully!! I adore yours!!

Carol would you mind if I snagged one of your photos for the dress form to show it off to my readers at WynnieBee.com? I started a new category called Check IT Out to give my readers links to new ideas on the web. Here's my email - thanks : D

MsJoyceG AKA sassyb95atyahoodotcom Thought your price was reasonable .. until I looked around on the net .. Yikes $!29 was the cheapest and not as desireable as yours. Gonna think IF I HAVE SPACE for one. Yours are both WONDERFUL. Thanks for sharing with us.MsJoyceG

This is amazing! And yes I am always on the lookout for vintage dress forms...(they go for a small fortune on Ebay) THank-you I am going to dress a few up because I know people are going to want to buy my display!

How very generous of you to share your info on this dress form. You mention your love/hate relationship with ModPodge. I have a suggestion--try Liquitex Gloss/Varnish. Here's how you use it: 1. wet paper in a saucer/flat bowl of water 'til it relaxes 2. Remove to gluing area and paint back of paper with Liquitex 3. apply to object being decoupaged 4. coat outside of image with Liquitex 4. smooth out air bubbles 5. Let dry. If you want to darken the paper being used, add walnut dye or antiquing medium to the Liquitex. (Your hands will get coated with the Liquitex, but it peels off. If dirty hands really distress you, work with close fitting latex gloves.) I don't like ModPodge because of it's consistency. This technique takes some practice, but the results are far superior. Another glue you can use is Elmer's school glue. The Elmer's has the advantage of being water soluble and being easy to clean off of your hands. However, it must then be coated with polyurethane.

I showed your altered dress form to a friend last night (she makes jewelry) so we are going to make several for her jewelry displays. We shared a booth at an arts/crafts fair last fall and she mentioned needing something to hang necklaces on. This is perfect! I'm a pianist so have lots of sheet music lying around. And I love Graphics Fairy. What a great idea! Thanks again.

Thank you SO much for this article!! I've been looking for hours to find an affordable dress form for a display and I do NOT want to pay $100-$200 that I've been finding. This is PERFECT!!! Also, thanks for providing the part number, you were right, I couldn't find it the traditional way. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Carol, I just received my dress form and am curious as to whether or not you did any prep work on the form before applying papers. I am anxious to get stared on it, but must get Christmas put away first! Now there's a goal to get crackin' for.

Carol,I love your dress forms, and better yet the awesome price! I'm glad you were generous and shared your step by step tut on how to create it. You're so talented, these are GORGEOUS!!!! I don't know how you could think that no one would show up to your link party??? You have sooo many followers who love your work and creativity! Too bad I don't even know how to blog/link or else I'd join the link party! :(

This is my first visit and I love your site! I have been looking for dress forms for forever! Thank you for giving us a site to purchase one and how inexpensive it really is! Many I know have spent a lot more, much more than I was willing to pay for them!

I found you through Pinterest, and just love the dress form you antiqued. It is beautiful! Thank you for posting your source, and part #. I am going to order one and see what I can do with it. I sure hope I can make one as beautiful as yours.

Hello! This is beautiful! Thank you for this tutorial. I have a question, How many layers of modge pog do you have to applied for got that finished? I'm doing a dress form with the tape technique, but I can't get this finished look yet. Thank for your answer